Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Rum and raisin biscuits

The wind and rain is howling outside, which I’m not complaining about as we need rain to alleviate our current drought conditions...but it is a bit grim; or to put it another way, it’s the perfect day to make delicious, comforting rum and raisin biscuits!

These biscuits are very quick to make as long as you remember that you need to soak the raisins ahead of time. With soaking fruit there is only one rule: the longer the better. Ideally I soak fruit overnight but here, I decided on a whim to make the biscuits so soaked for an hour.

The rum flavour is subtle and the texture of the biscuit is light and crumbly. As usual, I got half as many biscuits as the recipe suggested...I just can’t help myself! I think my tablespoons are twice the size of everybody else’s!

This is my first post back following the loss of the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma). I know that my blog is usually light and humorous (Readers: so now she tells us!) but I would like to be serious in my thanks to all of you for your lovely comments and emails. I was quite overwhelmed by your words of sympathy and will admit I cried at many of your beautiful messages. Thank you. Day to day life still feels empty and wrong at the moment but I’m hoping that trying to get back into a routine (blogging being a part of that) will help.

Soak the raisins in the rum for as long as possible – ideally overnight, but a minimum of an hour.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/gas mark 5.

Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth, light and whippy.

Beat in the vanilla and the egg yolk.

Beat in 3 tablespoons of rum from the raisin/rum bowl.

Drain the raisins, retaining any remaining rum.

Stir the flour and the raisins into the mixture. If the dough seems dry add a further tablespoon of the retained rum.

Take tablespoons of the dough and place them, about 3cm apart, on the baking sheets. I got 13 biscuits whereas the original recipe said approx 30.

Press down on the biscuits so they are flat. If they are too domed they will be cakey in texture rather than biscuity.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes if you got nearer to 30 biscuits, or up to 30 minutes if – like me – you got 13! You’re aiming for them to be golden and crumbly around the edges but still soft in the centre.

Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets before moving to an airtight container. You will find that they have crisped up and are no longer soft in the centre.

36 comments:

Another lovely post, it's great to have you back there's been a big hole in the blogging world and we've all missed you and your glorious bakes (and yes, humorous posts!) Sending lots of love xxxxxxxxxx

Lovely to see you back CC! I nearly left you a message yesterday to say I was still thinking about you and hoped you were doing ok. You've definitely been missed around here. Your biscuits look melt in the mouth delicious.

I thought of a simple but yummy cake for you that has only two ingredients (three if you want it more chocolatey.) that would give you your fix but not take much effort. Let me know if you're interested. m

this looks long, but it isnt really. The ingredients are: a packet of Chocolate Ripple biscuits (they're Australian but there'd probably be an English equivalent) and a 300 or 600 ml bottle of cream - depending on how much cream you want. If you want to go the whole hog and use *3* ingredients and make it more chocolately, add Cadbury Drinking Chocolate to the cream (in any amount you like). I don't normally like drinking choc because it is too sweet, but it works in this.Whip the cream until it is thick.Spread some of the cream on the dish you're going to serve on - about 8-10 inchec long and biscuit size wide.Next, spread cream on one side of a buscuit and stand it on its edge in the cream. Repeat until your reach the end of the spread. It will look like a log. Cover the log with the remaining cream so you can't see any biscuits.Cover with cling film then put in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight, so the bics have time to soften. (If you don't wait long enough they will still be hard and it isn't as nice).When you're ready to serve, cut the first slice at a diagonal so that you have stripes in your cake. Eat chocolate and cream and buscuits. Yum. :o)

Great you have you back blogging again - have missed your delicious creations of late. I would love to make a batch of your cookies straight away, but unfortunately our kitchen is under going a complete transformation and so is rather messy right now, which means I can only sit and stare longingly at the computer screen:(

ooh, i could just devour one of those biscuits right now! they would go down so well with a brew... a tipsy tea-time treat - how delightful! today is perfect rainy-day baking weather, and i'm just about to make some savoury scones. really nice to see your post today.

Hey CC, good to have you back. Just thought you'd like to know your blog has inspired me to start baking again. I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to produce yummy things for people you love, and your rhubarb crumb cake has even managed to make a convert of my rhubarb hating Husband. Thank you

Welcome back dear CC, and thanks for another delish recipe...i've just taken an Anzac Slice out of the oven and the house smells divine...nothing beats the aroma of home baking, I hope you find getting back into baking helps to heal your hurt x

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